A couple of choice items benefitting the Microsoft Giving Campaign this year

As I noted in my post yesterday, this year's Microsoft Giving Campaign activities kicked off this month. In addition to the items I mentioned in my previous post, I also posted a couple of special items. (If you don't know about our campaign, see this link for more info: http://bit.ly/1ajgA0.) Although this is only open to Microsoft employees, I wanted to thank many of the folks who have been kind enough to provide some interesting items. (I checked with our auction and PR team to ensure I could mention the items here. 😉

One of my favourite items is my Samsung NC20 mini notebook PC with Windows 7, autographed by the Windows 7 management team, including Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky. This is an awesome portable, and combines the small size (11.5" x 8.5" x 1.2") and light weight (3.3 pounds) of a mini notebook with an excellent screen. The 1,280 x 800 resolution makes you feel like you're using a full-size notebook, compared to the cramped 1,024x576 or 1,024x600 of typical small notebooks.

The keyboard is also large and comfortable to type on, with the same key spacing as full-size notebooks. The PC has 2GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, slip case, charger, and two batteries (standard 6-cell unit for 5-6 hours and a 9-cell for 7-9.5 hours) battery, making this perfect for extended time away from sockets.

My thanks to our management team for taking the time to sign this computer!

Also up for auction is this new-in-the-box, never used, limited edition Pink Zune 30, courtesy of my wife (this was her original Zune, but she preferred a smaller 4GB Zune).

I purchased it at the initial release of the model and then obtained autographs from Robbie Bach, Steve Kaneko, J Allard and Bill Gates.

In all, the donations raised from the sale of these items will go to a good cause.